House Ledaal
Ledaal, the Empress’s fourth child to survive to adulthood, was clearly a prodigy. To make sure that she was never bored, the Empress asked Chejop Kejak for a Sidereal tutor for her little girl. Ledaal absorbed everything the Chosen of Mysteries told her: about sorcery, about the First Age, even about the Usurpation. Though she never repeated all that she knew (a lesson she learned early on), Ledaal was powerfully shaped by what she learned from her tutor. She later asked that tutor, and some other Sidereals as well, to stay on with her and her family as trusted advisors. That, along with the House’s elemental aspect, has resulted in one of the most intellectually curious and investigative Houses in the Realm. Curiosity has been the bane of many in this House, but most Ledaals would fi nd death preferable to boredom anyway, so they don’t much mind the danger. House Ledaal is one of the few Houses to realize the enormity of the threat posed by Deathlords. While its scions are trying to point out the danger to the other Houses, they have not been as effective as they need to be. MASTER(S) OF THE HOUSE Throughout its history, House Ledaal has consistently been run by a cabal of powerful, experienced Exalts. For the last several years, that cabal has included four Dynasts who epitomize both the worldly and intellectual seeking for which House Ledaal is known. LEDAAL KEBOK OMEGER A scholar and a sorcerer, Omeger was a savant and archeologist at the Heptagram for many years before retiring to take a more active hand in the running of his House. Like many in his family, he is an avid student of First Age history. He spent most of his life in the wilds of the Threshold searching out lost historical texts and studying the ruins of the First Age. He returned only 20 years ago to help lead his House, sporting a deep scar new on his cheek. Though everyone has asked to hear the story behind it, Omeger refuses to discuss the matter with anyone but his Sidereal advisor. LEDAAL CATALA GAMAM Like most of House Ledaal, Gamam has a very low boredom threshold, which has made her something of an adventurer. She has spent most of her Exalted life in the Threshold. She’s fascinated by the lack of any mention in history of the Deathlords, so she’s curious if they’re a new phenomenon. She has spent many years mapping the location and edges of several shadowlands, and during that time, she was also able to gather some intelligence on the Abyssal Anathema and their masters. Six months ago, after the joint Ledaal-Cathak victory at Scorpion Ridge, she was summoned home to join in the running of her House. She would prefer to continue her work in the Threshold, but she realizes that her family needs her knowledge and experience. This also gives her an opportunity to analyze the information she has gathered thus far in preparation for her next foray and to spread the word of the dangers presented by the deathknights. LEDAAL CAROS Caros is a strategist. He studied at the House of Bells, where he has since taught as well, and he has advised several of the Realm’s great generals. House Ledaal’s Sidereal advisors predicted his worth as a strategist at his birth, so he has never been allowed to choose his own path. He has suppressed his frustration and resentment over this, since he understands what is at stake. As a result, he has grown increasingly morose and peevish over the years. LEDAAL CYCEL With an eidetic memory and an uncanny ability to figure out who will do the most good where, Cycel runs most of the day-to-day operations of her House. She often consults with the Sidereals on which of the House’s children should be encouraged to go into what fi elds. She has no compunctions about pressuring parents into dictating their children’s career choices, and many parents and children alike have thanked her years after the fact for her meddling. MAJOR LINES There are two major households and a number of smaller offshoots of House Ledaal. THE LEDAAL CATALA HOUSEHOLD When Catala opted to form a household, she was not content to remain on the Blessed Isle when most of what the Realm urgently needed to know was out in the distant parts of the Threshold. She established a household in a powerful Air-aspected manse in the hills where the north fork of the Great Forks River starts, and her many children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren have come to prefer the role of pioneers to that of nobles with too much leisure time. This branch of the family fi nds it easier to study the Threshold and gather wonders and information when it doesn’t have to travel back and forth to the Realm. The primary subject of study for the Catala household is the Anathema, the shadowlands and the Deathlords. Its members collect old texts and new intelligence, ferret out foreign business opportunities to keep the House vaults fi lled and make friends and allies in places where most Dynasts are afraid to venture. So numerous are the sorcerers in this household that they’ve formed their own sorcerous society. THE LEDAAL KEBOK HOUSEHOLD Another great Air-aspected sorcerer, Ledaal Kebok is a famed scholar and sorcerer, and he still teaches at the Heptagram from time to time. His household takes after his scholarly bent and collects historical texts, records oral histories (preferably from older Sidereals when possible), studies sorcery at the knee of the Sidereals and runs a solid intelligence-gathering network that boasts eyes and ears in most of the major cities around the Realm. Though he will deny it to the end, there is a rumor that his eldest daughter, Sulco, took a demon as a lover, and that a strain of demon-blood taints all of her children. The rumor has some truth to it, but Kebok can’t accept the notion and refuses to hear it spoken in his presence. All the Ledaal households are aspected toward Air. ECONOMICS House Ledaal controls several major ports in the south of the Blessed Isle, Arjuf in particular, and gains substantial funds from tariffs and taxes. The House also has a respectable handful of satrapies under its control, which it treats with commendable fairness. While House Ledaal doesn’t drain its tributaries the way some Houses do, it does not tolerate lateness. Ledaal tributaries learn early on that it’s inadvisable to antagonize a House of sorcerers. The savants of Ledaal occasionally perform sorcery on others’ behalf, or restore a First Age wonder to full working order for someone, but they charge dearly for such tasks. That price goes up precipitously if there is any danger to the sorcerer. The Catala household, based out of Creation’s Far Eastern edge, brings in much of its money by fi nding previously unknown First Age wonders and texts and selling them to the Heptagram for a spectacular sum, as well as arranging and overseeing trips into the deep Threshold. GOALS AND ALLIANCES While it has no interest in governing an empire, House Ledaal has every interest in maintaining the integrity of the Realm. Most of the deals and alliances it arranges are made to achieve that end. Ledaal would dearly love for Cathak Cainan to take the Scarlet Throne because its members respect his experience with the Wyld Hunt and they believe he would be open to focusing the Hunt’s efforts on destroying the Deathlords and their deathknights. To further its connection with House Cathak, House Ledaal has many marriages pending with that Great House. Thanks to its support of the Wyld Hunt, particularly against the deathknights, House Ledaal has the support of the Immaculate Order, right up to the Mouth of Peace herself. In return, Ledaal’s Threshold archeologists keep an eye out for sutras or First Age documents that the Order might want—provided House Ledaal doesn’t want them more. ILLUSTRIOUS DYNASTS OF THE HOUSE LEDAAL KEBOK COREN Recently graduated from the House of Bells, Ledaal Kebok Coren is already an astonishing prodigy with blades and in terms of her control of her own Essence. She scares many in her own household. While many Air Aspects seem to have a deep connection to the weather, Coren’s goes far beyond the norm. Some Children of Mela have eyes that refl ect the sky, but with Coren, the sky seems to refl ect her mood. When she is happy, the sky is clear and blue as sapphire. When she despairs, it rains. And when she’s angry, great bolts of lightning and raging thunder shake the heavens. She is slowly learning to control her emotions, but she’s naturally very prone to strong, passionate feelings, so the process is slow and difficult. In their long talks together, her grandmother, Sulco, has confessed to Coren that her abilities come through the blood, and that her great grandfather is a powerful storm demon named Yan. Sulco has shown particular interest in Coren, and it’s possible that Yan has as well. THE RINGS OF LEDAAL CATALA Several of the Exalted in the Catala household are Heptagram-educated sorcerers, and some younger members of the household are learning sorcery from their family without attending the Heptagram (which is several thousand leagues to the west). They have formed something of an extended sworn brotherhood in their Threshold homestead based around the discovery, collection and study of sorcerous lore unknown in the Realm. In some ways, this is their only option, as they often lack the resources of Realm sorcerers, but it has already been quite rewarding. These sorcerers are fascinated with the ways in which the apex of First Age sorcery eclipses even the most powerful spells they learned at the Heptagram, and they’re hoping to fi nd something to rival the spells they’ve read about. They have already found a number of First Age sorcerous manuscripts, a handful of complex wonders and some undamaged (but non-functional) automata. Their true desire, however, is to find the fabled Book of Three Circles. Senior members of the Rings (as the group is called colloquially) have access to copies of Oadenol’s Codex, The Perfect Square and a partially translated treatise on ancient theories of manse construction entitled The House of the Noonday Sun, written by the legendary architect Kal Bax. None of these texts has yet found its way to the Heptagram. The Rings’ quest is not for knowledge for its own sake—or at least not entirely. The Rings of Ledaal Catala intend to scour the Threshold for any sorcerous means to combat or defeat the Deathlords, their deathknights and the other Anathema. In this search, members eagerly follow any rumor or hint of spells, manuscripts or wonders from the First Age. They also engage in deep and dangerous periods of sorcerous experimentation. The society’s location in the Threshold provides its members with easy access to remote places in which to experiment and opportunities to get their hands on items and substances that are difficult to acquire in the Realm. The tradeoff, of course, is that certain items that are readily available in the Realm are nonexistent this far out in the Threshold and must be obtained either in the Realm or in large metropolitan centers, such as Nexus, both of which require a great deal of travel.